Scale back county board pay, benefits

There has been some discussion about DuPage County Board pensions by Jake Griffin, the Daily Herald editorial board and others in your paper in the last few weeks. Last week a letter to the editor indicated the DuPage County Board is reviewing all benefits of elected officials.

I understand the retirement costs per county board member are something above $7,000 per year with a salary of more than $50,000 while they are elected. These costs added to other benefit costs and the salary bring the total to more than $80,000 each per year. These do not include retirement payments.

The taxpayer should not be required to pay this high cost. Consider the time spent at county board and committee meetings. The county board and the county board committees typically are scheduled to meet twice a month. They usually meet on a Tuesday most are completed by 2:30 p.m. I think many citizens would agree that these county board members' jobs are part-time.

I find it difficult to accept that taxpayers should pay $80,000 or more for a part-time job when many are struggling to keep their job, pay taxes, pay other bills and in other ways dealing with this economy. I say lower the pensions, other benefits and the salaries of each county board member.